Security Guide for Siebel Business Applications > Configuring Access Control > Planning for Access Control >

Planning for Positions

A position represents a specific job slot within your company. As you define your company structure, define specific positions with each level in the hierarchy of divisions. Positions determine which records users have access to. You must be logged on to a server database to add positions.

NOTE:  An employee should have a position in order to create and use accounts, opportunities, contacts, and other customer data objects in your Siebel application.

Each position typically has only one associated employee. In some circumstances such as job-sharing situations, a position may have multiple associated employees. One employee can be associated with multiple positions. There can be only one primary employee for a position, but an employee can be primary for more than one position.

There is a drawback to having multiple employees associated with a position. Because a position can have only one primary employee, only the primary employee is visible in the Employee field. If you search for an employee in a positions list, you may not find relevant position records in which the employee is not primary for the position.

Only the primary employee for a position appears in the Account Team, Opportunity Sales Team, and Contact Access lists. However, all the employees in that position can access the My Accounts, My Opportunities, and My Contacts views.

A position can be associated with only one organization. If you want an employee to have visibility to multiple organizations, you must create a position for each organization and assign that employee to each position. The employee can then see one organization's data at a time by changing positions.

Positions can be set up in a multilevel hierarchy, which allows for manager access control. The parent position gains visibility to all the sets of data visible to the individual child positions. (Usually, the data will be displayed only where the child position is the primary on the team or record.)

Your Siebel application allows users to change their position to another position to which they have already been given access by the administrator. A user can change positions while logged in by choosing Tools > User Preferences > Change Position, selecting a different position in the list, and clicking the Change Position button. For instance, a sales representative could change position to a sales executive and have access to the same views as the previous position, but gain visibility to another organization's data.

NOTE:  You cannot make a position obsolete by setting the End Date. This field records only the end date for the current employee associated with the position. It does not make the position obsolete after that date has passed.

CAUTION:  Do not delete a position. This can cause unexpected and negative results. For example, if you delete a position that is primary for an account, and you do not select a new primary position for that account, Assignment Manager may not be able to assign resources to activities for that account.

If you rename a position, check these areas in your Siebel application to make sure the name change is reflected correctly:

• Assignment rules, if you have used these positions in assignment rules. For more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.
• Workflow processes, if you have used these positions in workflow processes. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.
• Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM), if you are referring to these positions in EIM import SQL scripts. For more information, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.
• The Position field of the Employees view.

NOTE:  If you change a mobile user's position, that user's visibility rules change. In this case, it is recommended that the user reextract his or her local database. However, if you change only the position name (for example, from Sales Representative to Sales Associate), then reextraction is not required. This is because, in the database table where position names are stored, this column has enterprise-wide visibility. In other words, changes to this column will be distributed to all users. See also Position Data Model.